Pen pals, a picture-perfect day and a parade

The day the fourth-graders of St. John the Baptist Catholic School had been eagerly awaiting all year finally arrived on May 14.

After getting to know each other through the exchange of letters and pictures since September, the students met – in person – the residents of Brooke Grove Retirement Village with whom they have been corresponding. The meeting was filled with smiles, laughs, tears, handshakes and hugs.

Judy Jenkins, writing coach at St. John the Baptist, said words cannot express the joy that the students and residents felt during the Pen-Pal Parade.

Last summer, the fourth-graders of St. John the Baptist on New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville wrote a letter to a resident at Brooke Grove, and the friendship began.